Centre for the Study of Social Systems
School of Social Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University

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UNDERGRADUATE/MA/M.PHIL COURSES

Undergraduate Courses (for students of the School of Languages, Literature and Cultural Studies)

• SS 201N: Anthropological Theories of Society and Culture
  1. This course deals with an introduction to Anthropology: a critical Study of social evolutionism, diffusionism, functionalism and Structural-functionalism. It very briefly deals with structuralism and post-structuralist trends and explores the interface between micro and macro sociological approaches
• SS 202N: Themes in Indian Society: Structure and Change
  1. Topics 1. Socio-cultural Pluralism in India 2. Social Stratification: Caste, Class, Ethnicity & Power 3. Family, Marriage & Kinship Structures: Descent and Alliance Practices in North & South India 4. Development and Change 5. Polity and Social Movements

Note:  These courses are optional and carry three credits each.

M.A. COURSES

(a)  Compulsory Courses

• SS 451N: Methodology of Social Sciences.
  1. Not available
• SS 452N: Sociological Thinkers
  1. Credits: 4
     The works of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber constitute the basic building blocks of Sociological Theory. Some of the most important debates in contemporary sociology can be traced to the writing of these scholars. Marx, Durkheim and Weber wrote about modernity and the dilemmas that societies face. As they move out of tradition. The Europe of their times was industrializing rapidly and did not have the settled countenance that it has today. Though India is very different from Europe, we too are going through epochal transitions which make it necessary for us to understand Marx, Durkheim and Europe. The debates that took place in Europe become relevant for us as well. India today is a test case for most theories as it has aspects of tradition and modernity that co-exist but also impact each other and thereby altering their standard profiles.
• SS 453N: Culture, Personality and Society.
  1. Not available
• SS 454N: Family Life and Kinship in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course introduces students to theoretical and empirical issues entailed in the study of family and kinship in India. Beginning with a discussion on main approaches in kinship studies, it charts out key concepts, ideologies, regional variations and structural arrangements of kinship systems in India. This is followed by examination of marriage alliances and practices with special reference to marriage prestations. Next the course critically explores the institutional structure and function of family and household through the lens of gender, caste, class and other sociopolitical dimensions.
• SS 455N: Anthropological Theories( Dr. Nilika Mehrotra and Professor Ehsanul Haq)
  1. Credits: 4
     This course introduces students to history of ideas and thinkers in the trajectories of theory development in Anthropology right from nineteenth century to contemporary times. In tracing the debates on key concepts, students are required to read the original texts and participate in the discussions on a regular basis. Attendance is compulsory. Mode of Instruction: 3 lecture classes (1hr) and a tutorial/Presentation class (2 hrs) per week
     Mode of Evaluation: 4 credits: Presentations and write up (1), midterm test (1) and end semester (2). In the overall evaluation, students’ participation in the class and aptitude would be assessed.
     
     Presentations will be based on chosen core theory texts. Presentation paper should be submitted within a week of the discussion. (1,000 words)
     Section I Classical Theories
     Rise of Anthropological Theory
     Evolutionism (Tylor, Frazer, Morgan & Marx)
     Diffusionism ( Lowie, Rivers)
     Historical Particularism (Boas, Kroeber)
     Early Twentieth Century Approaches
     Functionalism ( Malinowski), Structural Functionalism (Brown, Firth)
     Culture and Personality (Benedict, Mead)
     Section II Theories after 1950 -60s
     Theory at Mid Century
     Structuralism( Mauss, Levi Strauss, Leach))
     Symbolic Anthropology (Douglas, Turner, Geertz).
     New Ethnography(Geertz, Goodenough).
     NeoEvolutionism (White,Steward,Meillassoux, Sahlins).
     Postcolonialism( Asad, Comaroff), Transactionalism (Barthes)
     
     New Debates
     Feminist Anthropology (Ortner).
     Poststructuralism and Postmodernism (Bourdieu, Clifford and Marcus, Rosaldo)
     Globalization debate (Appadurai, Gupta & Ferguson)
     
     Core Readings
     Appadurai, Arjun. 1991. “Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology,” in Richard Fox (ed.), Recapturing Anthropology. Santa Fe (New Mexico): School of American Research Press.
     Barth, F. 1981. Process and Form in Social Life: Selected Essays of Frederik Barth, vol.. London: RKP
     Benedict, Ruth , 1934. Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
     Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press: London.
     Bourdieu, P. 1990. The Logic of Practice, Polity Press: Cambridge.
     Clifford, James and George Marcus (eds.). 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
     Douglas, Mary. 1966.Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.
     Geertz ,Clifford 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
     [“Thick Description”, “The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man”, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”]
     Firth, R. 1951. Elements of Social Organization. London: Athlone.
     Levi-Strauss, Claude 1963in Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology. Trans. Claire Jacobson. New York: Basic Books. (Introduction, Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology)
     Marx,. Karl Pre-Capitalist Social Formations, 1857
     Malinowski, B. 1944. A Scientific Theory of Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
     Mead, Margaret. 1963. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, Morrow Quill: New York. [Introduction and Conclusion]
     Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. 1924. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Glencoe, I1, The Free Press, 1952.
     (“The Mother’s Brother in South Africa”, “On Social Structure,”)
     Ortner, Sherry. 1974. “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?”, ” in Michel Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds), Woman, Culture, and Society, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
     
     Reference Readings
     Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1981. A History of Anthropological Theory
     Fox, R. 1991. Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Santa Fe: SARASS
     [Especially Introduction & Chs by Abu Lughod (8) & Appadurai (1)]
     Harris, Marvin 1968. The Rise of Anthropological Theory. New York: Crowell.
     Knauft, B. 1996.Genealogies for the Present in Cultural Anthropology, NY & London: Routledge.
     Kuper,A. 1983[1973]. Anthropology & Anthropologists: the Modern British School. London: Routledge.
     Lowie, Robert 1937. History of Ethnological Theory
     Gupta,A. and J.Ferguson.(ed).1997. Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology. Duke University Press.
     Manners, R.A.and D.Kaplan( eds). Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook. Chicago: Aldine.
     McGee, RJ and RL Warms, 1996. Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. London: Mayfield Publishing Company.
     Moore, Henrietta and Todd Sanders (eds).2006. Anthropology in Theory: Issues in Epistemology.U.K. Blackwell Publishing Company.
     Nadel, S. F. 1969. Foundations of Social Anthropology. London: Cohen & West.
     Ortner, Sherry 1984. “Theory in Anthropology since the 1960s,” Comparative Studies in Society and History,6:126-166.
     Reyna, S.P. 1997. Theory in Anthropology in the Nineties. Cultural Analysis 9, 3: 325-50.
     
     Supplementary Readings
     Boas, F., 1896. “The Limits of the Comparative Method of Anthropology”. [JSTOR]
     Boas, F., 1932. “The Aims of Anthropological Research”. [JSTOR]
     Borofsky, R. 1997. CA Forum on Theory in Anthropology: Cook, lono, Obeyesekere, and Sahlins [Article]. Current Anthropology. Vol.38, No.(2), Apr. 97, p.255-82.
     Collier, Jane F. and Michelle Rosaldo, 1981. “Politics and Gender in Simple Societies,” in Sherry B. Ortner and Harriet Whitehead (eds.), Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality. New York: Cambridge University Press.
     Gupta, A. and J. Ferguson, 1992. “Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference,” Cultural Anthropology 7(1):6-23.
     Gayle, Rubin, 1975. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex,” in Rayna Reiter (ed.), Toward an Anthropology of Women. New York: Monthly Review Press.
     Harris, Marvin, 1966, “The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle,” Current Anthropology 7(1):51-66. [JSTOR]
     Harris, Marvin 1977. Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures.. New York: Vintage. [Chapter 9 (“The Cannibal Kingdom”) and Chapter 12 (“The Origin of the Sacred Cow”)].
     Leach, Edmund. 1961. Rethinking Anthropology. London: Athlone Press.
     Leach, E. 1954 [1964, 1970] Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. London: Bell & Athlone Press - especially Introduction. [KK635.B8]
     Leslie White, 1943, “Energy and the Evolution of Culture”, American Anthropologist 45: 335-356.
     Levi-Strauss, Claude, 1969. Totemism; tr by Rodney Needham. Boston Beacon Press.
     Malinowski, B. 1961 [1922]. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: E.P. Dutton.[“Introduction: The Subject, Method, and Scope of this Inquiry.]
     Marcus, George and Michael M. J. Fischer, 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.[Introduction and Chapter 5]
     Michelle Z. Rosaldo, 1974. “Woman, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview”, in Michel Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds), Woman, Culture, and Society, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
     Rabinow, Paul. 1977. Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Introduction and Conclusion].
     Said, E. 1989. “Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors”, Critical Inquiry, vol. 15, no. 2, Winter, pp. 205-225.
     Service, Elman R. 1985. Century of controversy: Ethnological Issues from 1860 to 1960. Orlando Academic Press.
     Steward, Julian 1968. “Multilinear Evolution,” in Manners, R.A./Kaplan, D., eds. Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook. Chicago: Aldine.
     Stocking, George W (ed.) 1983. Observer Observed : Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork. The University of. Wisconsin Press: Madison & London.
     Stocking, George W., editor, (1984) Functionalism Historicized: Essays on British Social Anthropology. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
     Turner, Victor.1967. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in in Rites of Passage ,” In The Forest Of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Rituals: 93-111. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
     Tsing, Anna 2000. “The Global Situation,” Cultural Anthropology 15(3):327-360.
     Tylor, E. B. 1871 [1965]. “Animism”, in William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt (eds), Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (abridged from Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1871). New York: Harper & Row.
     Tylor, Stephen. 1969. “Introduction to Cognitive Anthropology,” New York, Rinehart And Winston.
     Wolf, Eric R., 1982. Europe and the People Without History. German. Frankfurt: Campus.
• SS 456N: Economy and Society in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     The course has been evolved on the theme of ‘inclusive growth’ to highlight how ideas of inclusion highlight the social embeddedness of the Indian economy. Consideration of this theme also brings out the importance of the sociology of economic processes in evaluating discussions of capitalism and socialism.
• SS 457N: Sociology of Social Stratification in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     As a special branch of sociology, social stratification focuses on different dimensions of social inequalities, a fundamental aspect of virtually every social process. This course is designed to introduce and critically examine the available literature on various dimensions of social stratification in the Indian society. Given that India has recently been witness to various changes in its social and economic structures, unleashed by the forces of technological changes and developmental initiatives, the course will deal with structural as well as processual aspects of social stratification, focusing specifically on caste, class, gender, and ethnicity/communities, and the manner in which these structures or dimensions of social inequalities interact and intermesh with each other.
• SS 458N: Religion and Society in India
  1. Credits: 4
     The purpose of this course is to introduce the basic concepts, theories and methodology of the Sociology of Religion. It will introduce the M.A student to the wealth of materials that are to be found in Social Science literature, where the focus is on understanding the objective criteria required for the analyses of Religion in India. We use the conventional theoretical concepts placed before us by the Founders of Sociological Thought, Marx, Weber and Durkheim in order to set the paradox placed for us in the contexts of India. Thus the case studies are a very important part of class room teaching, and can be continuously replaced with fresh materials with the passing of the years.
• SS 459N: Sociological Theory.
  1. Credits: 4
     Unlike the paper on Sociological Thinkers this seeks to focus on a range of theories, both classical and the more contemporary. Keeping both questions of relevance of theory and the pedagogical challenge, an effort is made to raise fundamental questions such as the role of theory and the relevance of reading classical theories in the current globalizing context. An effort is made to look at both the basic contents of theories as well as the skill to think theoretically. The challenges from feminist rethinking run through the course and not as an add on.
• SS 460N: Techniques of Social Research.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course considers the different ways in which research techniques become instrumental in the understanding and explanation of social phenomena. The goal of this course is to acquaint and engage students in discussing the links between theory, methodology, method and techniques. This is also to emphasize the fact that research is to be viewed as a process and techniques are not to be merely used as technical devices of data collection. Their importance lies in conceiving them as instruments, grounded in certain theoretical and methodological apparatus to be employed in relation to a given situation. This course tries to sensitize and train students to diverse methods of data collection. Along with teaching and methodological reviews of selected books and monographs, the students would be allotted specific areas for field work. They would be encouraged to conceptualize a research problem, prepare a research design, conduct a short field trip and write a report.
• SS 461N: Polity and Society in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     I. The Sociological Tradition and Development of political Sociology, Approaches Towards Understanding Polity and Society in India.
     II. Basic Concepts: Society, Polity, Authority, Legitimacy, State, Nation-State, World Systems
     III. Indian Society and its power matrix
     IV. Tradition, Modernity, State, Nation Building and globalization in India.
     V. Politics of Poverty and Poverty Politics of Party System, Elections, Crime Politics nexus
     VI. Political Culture and Patterns of Collective Action.

(b)  Optional Courses

• SS 413N: Industry and Society in India.
  1. Not available
• SS 414N: Sociology of Knowledge.
  1. Credits: 4
     The course introduces students to the key perspectives in the sociology of knowledge from European and Indian traditions of social philosophy. The course also provides an overview of four major contributions to sociology of science. The course then critically engages with issues pertaining to knowledge and power, namely colonialism, patriarchy and subaltern identities. Lastly the course critically examines the basis of sociological knowledge and methodology.
• SS 415N: Law and Society in India.
  1. Not available
• SS 416N: Sociology of Medicine.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course examines the organization of medicine as an institution. We propose to do this by plunging initially into a set of readings on pregnancy and childbirth and subsequently trace the questions and paradoxes it throws up by turning to history and epistemology for their origins and conditions of possibility. In the bargain, some of the questions we examine will be the relationship between doctor and patient, between lay and expert knowledge, and the question of technology, social class and the politics of location.
• SS 417N: Sociology of Science.
  1. Not available
• SS 418N: Sociology of Minorities and Ethnic Groups.
  1. Credits: 4
     Course Outline:
     Section I: Minorities and Ethnic Groups – Some theoretical considerations. Defining parameters; boundaries, identities and marginalization; ethnic groups and nationalities; pluralism, interaction and social integration.
     Section II: Social Structures and Organisations; Guiding principles of social structures; social structure and status-formation: Social organizations and identity formations; identities, mutualites and systematic goals.
     Section III: Change and Continuity Nature and types of change; Factors and forces contributing to change; Cohesion and conflict; Modernisation, development and social transformation.
• SS 419N: Bureaucracy and Development in India.
  1. Not available
• SS 420N: Sociology of Education in India.
  1. Not available
• SS 421N: Tribal Sociology in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course introduces students to following issues:
     
     1. The concept of Tribe and problem of definition
     2. Anthropology, Colonialism & Tribes
     3. Tribes in Indian Civilization
     4. Social Organization & Change: Kinship, Marriage & Family, Polity & Economy, Religion
     5. Problems & Approaches to Tribal Development
     6. Tribal Movements, Tribal Identity & Ethnicity
     7. Theoretical Perspectives & Approaches: Critique & search for an Alternative Paradigm.
• SS 422N: Peasant Sociology in India.
  1. Not available
• SS 423N: Sociology of Urban Life in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     I. Urban India Some Explanations Disciplinary orientation: Urban growth and Development: Rural-Urban Dichotomy, and rural-Urban Continuum
     II. Social Structure and Life in Urban India: Socio-demographic distribution; Religion-ethnic Composition: Institutional Arrangements – Family, Kinship, Caste, Economy and Polity; Slums and Urban Poor.
     III. Processes and Change in Urban India. Migration, urbanism, urbanization and industrialization; formal and informal organizations-social participation and social integration; social stratification and mobility; and urban-industrial culture.
• SS 424N: Sociology of Professions.
  1. Not available
• SS 425N: Themes in Social Anthropology-Analysis of Monographs.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course seeks to examine the historical context of making of ethnographic tradition in social anthropology through analyzing the core themes in few key classical monographs. Contextualizing the contribution of these monographs in the building of theoretical & methodological traditions in anthropology, the course explores the issues in ethnographic writing, selection of areas and themes and the politics of representation.
• SS 426N: Statistics in Social Sciences.
  1. Not available
• SS 427N: Population and Society in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course deals with the relationship between population and society. It starts from an introduction of social demography, theoretical approaches to social demography and development of social demography in India. The course will also deal with the Sociology of demographic processes, sociology of demographic structures, social demography of Dalit and religious minorities, social development and population and sociological analysis of population policies.
• SS 428N: Women and Society in India -A Comparative Perspective.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course aims to understand the impact of patriarchy and development on the changing roles, status and images of women in India. Methodological issues involved in doing feminist research and theoretical debates about gender would also be discussed. This would be followed by a comparative portrayal of women’s situation the world over.
• SS 429N: Modern Indian Social Thought.
  1. Credits: 4
     To appreciate the sociological significance of social thought – the body of knowledge relating to society, culture, religion, polity and national awakening-that emerged in India through diverse modes of intervention by social thinkers, reformers, freedom fighters and political activists. The course looks at continuity of these debates/discourses in contemporary times – particularly, in the emerging sociological literature.
• SS 430N: Modes of Cultural Analysis.
  1. Not available
• SS 431N: Ecology and Society
  1. Credits: 4
     This course is intended to examine the multifaceted and dialectical relationship between nature and social organization which had, at a point, become invisible within the social sciences due to the emphasis on sociologism, and in a similar vein, ‘economism’ and ‘politicism’ if we may put it so. It views the conditioning effect of ecology on social organization and the impact of the latter on the former. It explores how nature is viewed by different groups and addresses the political implications of this pluralism. The course also touches upon some issues pertaining to environmental ethics and looks at some prominent ecological movements.
• SS 435N: South Asian Social Thought and Media
  1. Credits: 4
     I. The context of south Asian social thought: From Bhakti Movement to Colonization. Modernization and nation-building: Identity, Power, Freedom, Unity, society, Tradition and Modernity
     II. Media society relationship in south Asia. Evolution of the media from print to Internet.
     III. Changing orientation in the civil society, intelligentsia and the media systems: Westernization, Decolonization, Identity, Ethnicity: representations, regional cooperation and conflicts, south Asian Diaspora and local global nexus.
     IV. Some case studies from the south Asian nation-states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
• SS 436N: Modernization and Development: Perspectives from South Asia
  1. Credits: 4
     In this course the focus is on evaluating whether the study of development and modernisation gains by adopting a macro South Asian perspective. The course veers to the conclusion that the conceptualisation of South Asia is itself shifting under the contradictions generated by modernisation.
• SS 437N: Globalization, International Institutions and Society
  1. Credits: 4
     Several questions and themes of globalization will be addressed in the course as it is clear that one cannot think of globalization without either the state, which it purports to transcend, or its opposite: the local, localization and location. This leads immediately to check of flows: flows of labour, viruses, plants and pets. This in turn leads us squarely to how these flows and checks are organized by Institutions. International Institutions of Health, Finance, Labour and Trade; Institutions of Global Governance that perforce have to grapple with states, citizents and cultures; and with protest, contestation and attrition from civil society, movements and masses. We hope to examine these questions and others along the way by a close reading of selected texts, and through a series of invited lectures by specialists in the field.
• SS 438N: Rural India: Perspectives on Development and Agrarian Change
  1. Credit: 4
     This course has been designed to provide an introduction to the art of doing sociological research. After providing a broad overview of the commonly used approaches and techniques of social science research, the students will be required to think through a researchable question and prepare a proposal for undertaking empirical field-work. The students will also be introduced to the available sources of secondary/historical data. The students would be required to read some of the core texts on the subject and undertake a few exercises in preparing various tools for empirical/field research.
• SS 462N: Indian Society - Structure and Process.
  1. Not available
• SS 463N: Cinema and Culture in India.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course aims to introduce sociological perspectives on the dialectics of cinema and culture in contemporary India. The focus of the course is on the social history of cinema as a technology medium and agency of cultural production and culture consumption. It analyses the seminal texts and popular themes of Indian cinema within the theoretical framework and methodological constraints in contemporary sociological discourse in the global village.

Note:    All M.A. courses carry four credits each.  To qualify for the M.A. degree, students are required to complete a total of 16 courses, out of which 11 are compulsory.

M.PHIL COURSES

(a) Compulsory Courses

• SS 601N: Theoretical Orientations in Sociological Analysis.
  1. Credits 4 (Two for Seminar, Two for Term Paper)
     Dr. Amit Kumar Sharma
     
     This Course proceeds on the assumptions that students at the M.Phil level are already familiar with the broad theoretical orientations in Sociology. This Course intends to give them an overview of the state of Sociology as a vocation or calling. Secondly, it tries to socialize them in the tradition of theory construction. The Course is divided into two parts; Part-I deals with general topics, which will be covered by class lecturers and group discussions and Part-II deals with selected classics, which will be reviewed by students in the course of seminar presentations.
     
     Course Outline
     Part-I
     A. Sociology as a Theory of society
     1) Theory and Social Reality: Ontology and Epistemology
     2) Sociology and other Social Sciences
     
     B. Nature and Types of Sociological Theory
     1) Traditions and Various Schools of Theory-Constructions: Paradigm, Meta-Theory, Para-Theory
     2) Macro, Micro and Middle Range Theories
     3) Formal and Substantive Theories
     4) Problem of Sociological Theory: Reification, Conflation and Synchronicity
     5) Contemporary Discourse on ‘Theory’
     
     Part-II
     A. Revisiting the Classics
     For Seminar Presentations students will have to choose two well-known Classics each for a comparative review of theory construction.
     
     Reading List for Part-I:
     Alexander, J.et.al. 1997. The Classical Tradition in Sociology: The American Tradition, Vol.1, London: Sage. (General Introduction and Chapter 24)
     Archer, M. S. 1995. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach, Cambridge: CUP. (Chapters 2,3)
     Bauman, Z.1976. Towards a Critical Sociology, London: Routledge
     Berger, P. L. and T. Luckmann.1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
     Berger, P. L. and H. Kellner. 1981. Sociology Reinterpreted, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
     Boudon, R. et.al. 1997. The Classical Tradition in Sociology: The European Tradition, Vol.1, London: Sage. (General Introduction, Chapters 2, 20, 36, 46, 47, 53, 65, 66, 70, 74)
     Bulmer, M. and R. G. Burgess. 1986. ‘Do Courepts, Variables and Indicators interrelate?’ in R.G. Burgess (ed.) Key Variables in Social Investigation, London: Routledge
     Curtis, J. E. and J. W. Petras (ed.).1982. The Sociology of Knowledge: A Reader, London: Duckworth. (Part: 1, Chapters 2, 3,4,5,11)
     Elliot, Anthony (ed.). 1999. Contemporary Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell. (Chapters 2, 6, 7)
     Feyerabend, Paul.1978. Science in a Free Society, London: Verso. (Part 2)
     Levi-Strauss, C. 1963. Structural Anthropology, Vol.1, Harmondsworth: Penguin. (Chapters I, II, XVII)
     Marriott, Mckim (ed.).1989. India Through Hindu Category, New Delhi: Sage. (Chapter 1)
     Mennell,S. 1974. Sociological Theory: Uses and Utilities, New York: Praegee. (Introduction)
     Merton, R. K. 1981. Social Theory and Social Structure, New Delhi: Amerind Publishing Company. (Chapters I, II, IV, V)
     Mills, C. Wright.1959. The Sociological Imagination, New York: OUP. (Chapters 1, 2, 3)
     Mukherji, P. N. (ed.). Methodology in Social Research, New Delhi: Sage. (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5)
     Nisbet, Robert.1967. The Sociological Tradition, London: Heinemaun. (Part Two)
     Parsons, T.et.al.1965.Theories of Society: Foundation of Modern Sociological Theory, New York: The Free Press. (Pp.1311-1321, 1385-1448) …………1975. Essays in Sociological Theory, New Delhi: Light and Life. (Chapter XVII)
     Pickering, W. S. F. and H. Martins (ed.). 1994. Debating Durkheim, London: Routledge. (Chapters 1, 2, 3)
     Renzetti, Claire M. and Daniel J. Curran. 1998. Living Sociology. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
     Saran, A. K. 1998. Sociology of Knowledge and Traditional Thought, Sarnath: CIHTS.
     Singer,M. 1984. Man’s Glassy Essence: Exploration in Semiotic Anthropology, Delhi: Hindustan Publishing Corporation. (Chapter 2)
     The Polity Reader in Social Theory.1994, Cambridge: Polity Press. (Chapters 4, 7, 8, 9,11, 15)
     Turner, Stephen P., ed. 1996. Social Theory and Sociology: The Classics and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
     Uberoi, J. P. S. 1974. ‘New Outlines of Structural Sociology: 1945-1970’, in Contribution to Indian Sociology (N.S), 8, New Delhi: Sage ………………..2002.European Modernity, Delhi: OUP.
     Weber, Max. 1989.Science As A Vocation (edited by P. Lasman, et.al), London: Unwin Hyman (Part I)
• SS 607N: Methods of Social Sciences.
  1. Credits: 4
     1. Research Design
     • Evolving research questions
     • Paradigms and models
     • Designing the enquiry
     • Kinds of research designs and mixed approaches
     • Levels and units of analysis
     • Operationalisation of concepts
     • Validity of research design
     
     2. Methods and analysis of collected data
     • Questionnaires/interview schedules/Quantifiable tools
     • Interviews and In-depth interviews
     • Narratives
     • Documents of life
     • Content analysis
     
     3. Issues in the methods of social sciences and the philosophy of social science
     • Reflexivity
     • Subjectivity and Objectivity
     • Agency and structure
     • Explanation and understanding
     • Universalism and relativism
     

(b) Optional Courses

• SS 602N: Theories of Social Systems and Social Structure.
  1. Not available
• SS 603N: Society, Culture and Personality.
  1. Credits: 4
     The course is centered on an elaborate reflection on the following themes:
     
     1. Society, culture and personality: Key concepts, and seeing the linkage
     2. Psychoanalysis and human nature: Sigmund Freud and beyond
     3. Diversity of cultures and human personalities: Insights from cultural anthropology
     4. Modernity, classical sociology and human destiny
     5. Existentialist reflections on human personality: Absurdity, anguish and meaninglessness
     6. National and its national character: Construction and contradiction
     7. Rethinking self and Identity: Technological spectacles, globalization and hybridist
     8. Culture and personality: Reflections on contemporary trends
• SS 604N: Social System Analysis -Structural and Functional Models.
  1. Not available
• SS 605N: Marxist and Dialectical Models.
  1. Not available
• SS 606N: Social Systems Analysis - Action, Symbolic and Phenomenological.
  1. Not available
• SS 608N: Research Designs and Analysis of Data.
  1. Not available
• SS 609N: Interviewing in Social Research.
  1. Credits: 4
     The interview in certain kinds of fieldwork may be the predominant methodological tool. Where this is the case it produces different kinds of narrative, life histories, oral histories and medical histories or explanations of some performed activity that may require explanation and elaboration by the informants for the fieldworker. The course attempts to examine some of these issues by primarily looking at narratives of illness and healing, where the interview as a mode is often central and the ensuing narrative is often the sole product: a product that cardinally plays upon time, temporality and mode, especially the subjunctive. But we may not, depending upon individual interests and the composition of the class, confine ourselves to the literature on illness and healing. In any case, irrespective of the kind and the setting, since ‘story-telling/story-making’, or narrative and the nature of narrative, is the heart of the enterprise, we will examine the theory and practice of narrative in some detail and in the bargain look at some of the ethical issues that may confront the fieldworker when he conducts an interview.
• SS 610N: Scaling Techniques and Factor Analysis.
  1. Not available
• SS 611N: Observational Methods and Qualitative Data.
  1. Not available
• SS 612N: Projective Methods and Psychological Research.
  1. Not available
• SS 613N: Documentary and Content Analysis.
  1. Not available
• SS 614N: Analysis of Social Networks and Action-sets.
  1. Not available
• SS 615N: Historical Method in Sociology.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course attempts to understand the relationship between History and Sociology, between past and present along the axes of time, space and memory, with specific focus on urban and gender studies. We will begin with a brief methodological survey of the Annales School in Sociology.
     Forms of the Religious Life and Moral Education. What in brief, were Emile Durkheim’s contributions in understanding space time and moral density?
     We go on to the tradition of Marc Bloch, who through his dialogue with the Durkheimian tradition brought a sharp focus to the analyses of time and society. We will use biography and text in co-relation.
     The last part of the lectures will devote itself to the pioneering work of Braudel. Emmanuel Ladourie, Jaques Legoff, Natalie Zemon Davis, Henri Lefbvre to show how historians have borrowed from sociology and contributed methodologically in terms of our analytical understanding of the relationship between past and present.
• SS 616N: Sociology of Modernization and Development.
  1. Not available
• SS 617N: Politics and Social Change.
  1. Not available
• SS 618N: Professional Systems and Professionalisation.
  1. Not available
• SS 619N: Migration, Adaptation and Change - Overseas Indian Communities.
  1. Not available
• SS 620N: Youth, Identity and Social Change.
  1. Credits: 4
     The purpose of the course is to explore the problems of youth and identity in a changing world and to facilitate learning about individual identity (including your own) and its group dimension. Besides the readings, problems for discussion and analysis are drawn from topics presented by members. As a group member, your aim should be to cooperate with others and develop appropriate individual values, group norms, leadership, working procedures and conducive emotional conditions for effective analysis of the issues concerning youth and identity.
• SS 621N: Education and Society.
  1. Not available
• SS 622N: Social Structure, Values and Religious Systems.
  1. Credits: 4
     The aim of this course is to introduce a theoretically grounded but a holistic understanding of religious systems and values in relations to social structure in general and Indian social structure in particular.
• SS 623N: Systems of Family and Kinship.
  1. Not available
• SS 624N: Social Structure of Socialist Societies-China, Soviet Russia, Yugoslavia and Cuba.
  1. Not available
• SS 625N: Social Mobility, Social Differentiation and Social Change.
  1. Not available
• SS 626N: Ethnic Groups and Communities - Problems of Identity and Nation-Building.           
  1. Course Outline:
     1. Theories and Concepts
     2. Another Context
     3. Globalization, State, Classes and Identities
     4. Migration and Identity
     5. Questions from India
     6. Gender, Nation, Community, Identity
• SS 627N: Study of Social Movements and Revolutions.
  1. Not available
• SS 628N: Family Structure, Economic Growth and Modernization.
  1. Not available
• SS 629N: Science, Technology and Social Change.
  1. Not available
• SS 630N: Textual Analysis in Cultural Context-The Social Anthropology of Civilization.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course proposes to study selected Texts of Cinema as the symbolic representation of different civilizations. It utilizes different methods, techniques and approaches of Cultural Anthropology and Symbolic Sociology to understand the Construction and Deconstruction of Symbolic text in Civilization Contexts.
• SS 631N: Ethnicity, Identity and Modernity - The case of South and South-East Asia.
  1. Not available
• SS 632N: Democracy, Mass-Media and Nation-building.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course aim at presenting a comparative view of democracy, nation building and mass media in the context of processes of modernization national movements and mass communication. It is structured to provide an understanding of the conceptual and theoretical orientation as well as empirical illustrations of the inter-relationship between democracy, nation building and mass media in the modern world systems.
• SS 633N: Industrialisation and Social Change -Perspectives from the Third World.
  1. Not available
• SS 634N:  Modes of Symbolic Communication -Belief, Ritual and Art.
  1. Not available
• SS 635N: Themes in Gender - Culture and Society.
  1. Credits: 4
     This course locates gender as a cultural construct and as an organizing principle that pervades social processes by employing comparative perspectives. Readings explore complexities of intersections of gender with sexualities, politics, economy, culture. Key Themes:
     a.) Transnational Women’s’ Movements
     b.) Feminist Methodologies
     c.) Feminist Ethnographies
• SS 636N: Health, Culture and society
  1. Credits: 4
     This course is a critique of the clinical view of health and it highlights the central importance of the social, cultural, economic and political dimensions of health. This is to pave way for a more grounded understanding of health and the role of sociology in facilitating such an understanding. This course also examines the relation between health and larger structural factors, importantly, the state. It also looks at the relation between culture/worldview and health by including cross cultural studies on health and medicine.

Note:   All M.Phil. Courses carry four credits each.  Students are required to offer two compulsory courses and two optional courses.  They are also required to write a dissertation based on library work and analysis of secondary data.  The dissertation carries eight credits.  The M.Phil. Ordinances insist that students have to complete at least 50 per cent of the course -work (i.e., two courses) in the first semester itself.  However, those students who secure a minimum C.G.P.A. of A Minus (7.0 on the nine-point scale of evaluation) in the course-work can opt for the Ph.D. programme without writing the M.Phil. dissertation.